England ran out of time in their quest for victory in the second Test after New Zealand's batsman successfully resisted their attempts to wrap up the series.

Having set a challenging 356 from a minimum of 86 overs for an unlikely victory, the tourists were hopeful they had left themselves enough time to bowl out New Zealand and claim the victory which would also settle the series before the final Test in Auckland next Saturday.

But they were unable to make inroads quickly enough and despite two wickets in four overs from Matthew Hoggard, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan successfully steered New Zealand to the close without further loss by reaching 158 for four.

From the very start of the Black Caps' reply, England struggled to make inroads and took 15 overs to make the breakthrough when opener Mark Richardson top-edged an attempted sweep off Ashley Giles and Graham Thorpe took a brilliant running catch.

It then took until the 30th over before they tasted any further success, with Matt Horne's painstaking innings of 38 finally coming to an end when he edged Andrew Flintoff behind to wicketkeeper James Foster.

England did not enjoy the best of luck in their pursuit, with umpire Steve Dunne rejecting an appeal for a catch by Mark Butcher at silly point after Giles' full-length delivery had brushed Lou Vincent's glove.

Foster also dropped a regulation catch after Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming edged behind on one after pushing forward to a full-length Flintoff delivery.

England's imposing total, declaring on 293 for four, was largely due to all-rounder Flintoff's attacking strokeplay, as he scored the second fastest half-century by an England Test player off only 33 balls.

Ian Botham's 32-ball half-century against New Zealand at the Oval in 1986 is the only England innings to better Flintoff's effort, which was finally ended after he had progressed to 75 from only 44 deliveries when he tamely hit a return catch to left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori.

During his 54 minutes at the crease, Flintoff hammered two sixes and nine other boundaries and provided England with the impetus they needed to score quickly after they resumed overnight 246 ahead on 184 for one.

They lost both Butcher and Marcus Trescothick inside the first eight overs of the day as they attempted to score quickly to enable captain Nasser Hussain to declare as early as possible to give his bowlers time to dismiss New Zealand.

Butcher added just three runs to his overnight 57 before attempting to drive seamer Chris Drum over the top only to find the outstretched hand of Chris Martin at mid-off.

Trescothick fell just three overs later, mistiming an attempted sweep off Vettori straight to Richardson at short fine leg just 12 runs short of his century.

Once Hussain declared, though, it took England to within five minutes of lunch before they made the breakthrough and they found it just as difficult after the interval as New Zealand stubbornly resisted the tourists' attempts to wrap up the series.